TMC is an independent, primarily volunteer organization that relies on ad revenue to cover its operating costs. Please consider whitelisting TMC on your ad blocker and becoming a Supporting Member. For more info: Support TMC

I'm not sure what hyperloops are though. Can I be off topic in an off topic?

Click to expand...

In his fireside chat Mr Musk mentioned the hyperloop. When the interviewer suggested something like the Jetsons, he agreed it was something like that. So people are presuming it would be an enclosed tube using a combination of pressure and low friction to allow for rapid transportation.

California high speed rail is starting up, but you've proposed an alternative — maybe solar-powered, maybe on a pneumatic track — you call the hyperloop?

I've got to find the time to write up the details. I'm going to put it on a blog and open-source the idea. Why are we, in the center of high tech, doing such a bad job [with high-speed rail]? It's embarrassing. It says all sorts of wrong things about our state. I was thinking about what could be better, state of the art? That's where I came up with the idea for a fifth mode of Earth transport, apart from planes, trains, automobiles and boats. The hyperloop could go from city center to city center in not much more than a half-hour.

I've always thought the vacuum mail tubes would be fun? to ride in.
how about a tube that was an electromagnetic coil, solar powered with a magnetic train. just sayin

Click to expand...

This whole vacuum tube transport system talk is so 19th century! It's been done already, complete with paying customers in NYC as part of the subway system. And as with so much else, killed by politics

Ok, Elon says he'll post something in about "a month or so" from his Jimmy Fallon interview. If he eventually does here's my guess.

Summary: Surface built magnetically suspended, accelerated and guided pods. I guess it's the name that really got me thinking that if you were to put a system of magnet loops a few feet apart right at the surface where each loop was just a few feet larger than individual pod diameter you could accelerate these pods to a crazy speed. A loop would allow the pods to travel in different directions by slowly modifying their vectors with each loop. Under the cover of Solar Panels they would be resistant to weather intrusion. Linked together with battery backups they would be resistant to outages and thus crash-less. If enough were travelling together you'd get the benefit of less air drag and faster speeds with less power used. With enough solar panels and batteries you could conceivably self power the system. Make the pods small enough to keep the total weight accelerated as small as possible.

Could see a pod being able to accelerate to well beyond 300mph if under 2000lbs and had a very small CoD. Make them out of Carbon Fibre, Aluminum and magnets. 1000lbs/per pod with could be doable to allow for 1000lbs cargo. That's my guess, but haven't done the actual calculations as to how many magnets per loop, how many loops per 10 feet, what the actual CoD would need to be for a pod that weighed 2000lbs to hit 300+mph.

It would be stunning to see a form of transportation that had no moving parts and was impervious to crashes. For instance in the event of a earthquake and a simultaneous power outage the batteries could be used to reverse the push to accelerate into the pull to decelerate and quickly stop. If the occupants were in a 5 point harness you could safely stop within about 5 seconds. Every mile or so could be configured with an accelerometer (to act as a seismograph) to quickly stop pods. Surface mounted pods to allow for easy egress in the event of a catastrophic failure. This would be more difficult if it was a true tube and/or depressurized/vacuum and underground as it would greatly add to cost and safety concerns.

- The 'hyperloop' is a cross between a rail gun and Concorde. (difficult to see how this can't crash...)

Click to expand...

-----
If the railgun were used like a catapult to make the hyperloop-vehicle fly from SF to LA, then it would really be difficult to see how it couldn't crash.

So, I'm wondering whether it would fly over ground with an air cushion (and no or only very small wings), and the two electric wires would go all the way from SF to LA (as for electric buses), yet not carry the weight of the vehicle (only perhaps be a guidance for the steering mechanism).

In a rail gun, the current that drives the projectile, at the same time tries to separate the two rails. Very violently. We're talking of millions Ampere here. No lightweight construction can handle this current, the forces, and the dynamic load of the accelerating payload at once.

In a rail gun, the current that drives the projectile, at the same time tries to separate the two rails. Very violently. We're talking of millions Ampere here. No lightweight construction can handle this current, the forces, and the dynamic load of the accelerating payload at once.

Click to expand...

Perhaps then it gets re-accelerated in segments many miles apart, yet it still moves over ground.

EDIT: OTOH, if the mechanism works continuously, then it doesn't need to provide more power than an airplane engine (especially, of course, in case it flies in a vacuum tube). So, if it is an effective principle, then the consumed power doesn't have to be that large either.